Someone Asked: “Why don’t people follow through?”

SEASON 4, EPISODE 21

SOMEONE ASKED: “Why Don’t People Follow Through?”

Circle of Hope pastors address issues of commitment to friends, family, organizations, and why it is that we don’t always follow through.

Further thoughts and ideas that arise include:

-Ben provides an anecdote for the question’s context. In talking with an organizer, they both came to the idea that people have a lot of stuff they care about, but don’t always do a lot to support what they care about it. Why is that?

-For various reasons, we don’t really know how much we matter and we don’t feel freedom to do what we really want (beyond our basic desires).

-It’s difficult to do what we care about when the basic necessities of life get in the way. What preoccupies us are things that are urgent or things that we can change more readily, like daily obligations, and we can’t get down to other issues that don’t present themselves as vividly.

-So much of our life is automated and following through is less about automation and willingly taking action, and so it is difficult to do. One of the most useful things in following through is finding agreements, a common ethic that we all understand and will sign up for, having clear communication and understanding of responsibilities.

About Someone Asked: The Circle of Hope pastors spend a lot of time in conversation. We’ve collected some topics that people actually ask us. We choose one in which we’ll spend about five minutes monthly. Let’s see what happens!